 Why are video games so addictive? Video games have been around for almost 50 years now, and they used to be something to entertain yourself every once in a while when you had free time. Since then, games have evolved in every aspect, and kids play for hours and hours, and often gaming impacts a lot of people's lives. In this video, I will be talking about how games make us keep coming back to them again and again, and how game developers make their games focus on getting as much money and time from you as much as possible. So why do we keep on coming back to games over and over again? Well, because of five major things. The first reason we keep on coming back to games are because they're rewarding. The studies, even from decades ago, show that rewards are really what the human brain wants, and if rewards get bigger each time, the brain keeps coming back to it. For example, in the game Class of Clans, which is actually pretty old in 2020, once you level up your base more and more, you get more gold and currency to upgrade your town more and more. You also get more and more rewards every day because you can get more gold by upgrading your army, and by getting more gold, you can upgrade your base. Because people keep on coming back, no one wants to leave your progress they made on the game for years, along with other micro transactions they made in games. For rewards are the main reason for micro transactions, and it's the main way games make money. Most of the time though, most people don't pay, but there is that one kid who weighs 10k on some vbucks, and there's actually this thing called a whale, which is a person who gives the game devs a ton of money. It makes up like 5% of the player base, yet companies make half their money off of them. The next reason why games are so addictive are that they almost never end. Let's say you play a suitor game. There isn't a storyline, but most of these aren't really pay to win. Since the skill is mostly based on your aim and knowledge on the game, there isn't a good way companies can make money except for skins and other items. Now why are games without rewards so addicting? Well, they're really competitive, and that's what makes them so fun. Most of these games are not pay to win, which makes it so competitive, and people just want to improve their skill. It feels like you're in control, and that's why most of these games have a competitive mode, and even the normal modes are competitive. You can just escape reality while playing a competitive game. The state of mind is called the flow state. I recommend you to study it, to get better at gaming because it really helps. You're focused on the game and only the game, and this can happen if you aren't focused with too much competition on the game, and the game isn't too easy, and that's how you get to flow state, and that's another reason why games especially competitive games are so addictive. The next reason is that there is always something new. Like at Fortnite for example, every season there's always something new, and once they stopped adding OP items, people actually left because they felt like Epic wasn't doing their full potential. And that's why games just don't add that many updates, because once people keep coming back with bigger and bigger expectations on updates, they just get disappointed when you stop giving them that. Another way games keep making you coming back to them are because they create strong emotions. The first time you die, or every time you win a game, it's always telling your brain hey, let me try that again, or hey, can I win again? Because games are mostly online, people feel fun, losing, or winning against other players, because of the emotional response. And let's say you're super good at the game, of course you would be happy that you spent that much time developing your skill, but you're also happy to show it off to your friends and other players. And that online connection is just one of the reasons why gaming is so addictive. That concludes my list. What do you think about this topic? If you want to learn more about gaming, or you just want to know more about games, subscribe. I post videos weekly, and you'll be missing out on a ton of things you might want to know about gaming. Thanks for watching, and let's have a discussion about this in the comments below.